If you couldn't tell from the picspam below, it's been a busy week. PA successfully cleared Naxx (again--this time with a picture of us posing in front of Sapphiron's body) and then took Malygos head-on.

A little about the Malygos fight: We three-shotted him. We got to the third phase every time, but it took the first two tries to get everything to gel together. In fact, the second try, we got Malygos down to 1% after he enraged. I'm actually glad we didn't get him on that attempt (and not just because I was dead during the entire third phase due to a string of bad luck) because I didn't want our first kill to be a "Whoops! Well, we did it by the skin of our teeth, but we did it!" situation. The third try? No deaths. And we handily took him down. There was no question in the end that it was a successful run. We WILL be doing it again.

Leo got video, but is working on editing it right now. Expect to see it here soon.

Sunday was a planned 25-man run into the Obsidian Sanctum to take down Sartherion. We fielded about 17(?) PA members, and pugged in the rest with friends. I've heard people say you can take him down easily with only 20 people. I have to agree. Mind you, we didn't do any of the achievements to leave any of the drakes up, but it was the first time most of us had seen the Heroic version. I suspect achievements will be in the near future.

Obligatory screenshots:

Posing with the corpse:

Then Leo had to explode the corpse:

A few of us also joined a late-night/early-morning pug for 25-man Archevon earlier in the weekend. Xendayr was selected as main tank. And that was *before* he got his shield from Malygos. We had one wipe, but got back in there quickly and took him down on the second try.

Team Level Appropriate went into Black Fathom Deeps and wiped the place clear. Xenshi and Pamplona had never seen the zone, and I think the rest of us had only seen it from behind a level 70 bovine wrecking ball.

We still need a new name for that group. "Team Level Appropriate" is just too...meh.

Goetic came back (YAY!) and hit 80, so we're up to 20 level 80 characters in guild. And only one of those is an alt. We're getting closer and closer to being able to field 25-mans with all PA members, but we're taking things as they come. (That said, if you are or know someone who is a good, friendly player interested in 25-mans, send Xendayr an in-game mail.)

Finally, for all the success in raiding, I have to point out we were not successful in bringing down the Dalaran Lamp Post boss on Sunday night. Campitor and Thuryn aggroed it:

Then Leo, Jez, and Aili joined in, along with some by-standers:

The next thing you knew, we had a full raid of people (plus mounts) trying to bring it down without any luck.

Yes, we are as goofy as we are serious.

Finally, in website news, I added a picture gallery (see the link in the Guild Information menu on the left) that...isn't set up to be all fancy yet, but at least it's set up. I'm working on trying to bridge the login functionality to work with the main site. In the meantime, I still invite and encourage members to register (use the same username and password) and upload any screenshots, pictures, and even movies you might have that you want to share.

Ktok has also been working on updating the charter and guild information to reflect how we work in WoW.

Not the first time we downed the dragon. (The FIRST time, Leo blew up the body before we got a screenshot!) But we definitely had an easier time of it tonight.

So here's PA, posing with our undead dragoncicle:

We also did the entire Construct wing and Kel'Thuzad, but more on that in the weekly post...

Reflections: The Terminator edition. ("Ah'll be bahck!")

Written by Ailinea

Tuesday, 06 January 2009 18:31

The problem with doing our raiding early in the week is that I was so excited that I reported most of the exciting stuff already. But at least I had some pictures.

We tried taking down Malygos last night. Got the bastard down to 8% on our best try, but it still was not enough. While we're disappointed, we KNOW we can get him the next time we go in. It took us a while to really get to know the fights...sure, we all read the strategies and watched the videos, but it's *different* when you're actually in there. We discovered we could have used a little more DPS during the first two phases, and that would have given us a little more time before the enrage timer. If we had that extra DPS to shave off some time, we would have had him. But now we can safely say we have the first two phases down. The third phase isn't hard, just takes some practice. So this week we're going to be doing more work with the Aces High! daily quest to get some more training in.

I sincerely believe that the next time we go in there, we will be coming out victorious (and Leo WILL have video of the winning fight!). It was a wonderful learning experience last night, and we discovered where we needed work. What also impressed me was that despite our tiredness and frustration, our post-raid dialogue was incredibly supportive. It was a team collaboration of figuring out how to tweak our specs and re-gem or re-enchant gear, or even where to get new upgrades, so we can bring Malygos down on our next trip in. I really love seeing the guild come together like that for each other. We had that camaraderie in EQ1, it was missing in EQ2, but I feel like it's back and stronger than ever in WoW.

As for the rest of the week, we've all been taking our time doing heroics, getting faction, and...wow, come to think of it a lot still has been going on!

Qoholeth and Sheiky both dinged 80, and we added Decayen and Hayte to our ranks. That brings us to 19 level 80's, and only one is an alt.

Seeing the numbers swell is making us all gain more interest in possibly dipping our toes into 25-man content. Before this can happen, mind you, we need to get the new 80's geared up and are running heroics to do so (and planning raid rotations to give new 80's a fair shot at that gear too). But we've noticed we still have a nice balance of people. It's looking really good to have two squads of 80's running Naxx per week until we get a few more (either members or friends of the guild) to try a 25-man.

On the lower end of the level scale, Team Level Appropriate busted down the doors of Shadowfang and evicted Arugal. Xenshi even walked away in his robes. Black Fathom Deep is next on the hit list! (We need a new name for that group, I think....)

And I, uhhh...became a Grand Master Baiter. Yes, I am one of the crazy ones who LIKES fishing and got my skill to 450.

Tonight we go back in to Naxx and start clearing from the Spider Wing again....